Blog Cabin

Friday, September 13, 2013

After wrapping up the edits on Frenzy, it was time to think about my next novel. I bounced some ideas around with my editor and we decided on a concept that falls into the same genre as Frenzy, a science-thiller with a good mix of horror. I'm excited to announce that the follow up to my debut is tentatively titled MERGO. The good people at Disney-Hyperion have graciously allowed me to say a little bit about the plot.

When a family member falls deathly ill, 14-year-old Piper turns
to her classmate Tad for comfort. Tad, an amateur botanist, tells her there's a Seminole legend of a cure-all flower found only in an unexplored section of Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp.
Desperate for any glimmer of hope, Piper convinces Tad to accompany her on a
hunt for the flower.

What awaits them in the country’s largest black water swamp is an entity the Creek Indians, now long gone, spoke
of in hushed, fearful tones. The Seminole believed that the swamp's first settlers, the mystical Tasketcha tribe, still existed as evil spirits,
forever tethered to their burial mounds found in the dark heart of the waterlogged
forest.

If Piper has any chance of saving her loved one, she’ll have
to do the impossible—find the miracle flower, face her past, and overcome an ancient
evil known only as Mergo.

Not official book art

Mergo's publication date is a still a long way off, but it's nice to sink my teeth into a new story. I'll post updates on this project as it develops.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Today is a day I've been looking forward to for over four years. In 2009 I left a great job in the construction industry to pursue my dream of writing children’s books, and I’m excited to reveal the result of that leap of faith. The advance reader copies of Frenzy have arrived and they’re amazing!

I’m so grateful to the many people who were involved in bringing Frenzy to this important stage: my agent Lauren MacLeod, my editor Ricardo Mejias, and the fine people at Disney-Hyperion, including the book jacket’s designer Joann Hill. And a special thanks to the artist who painted the awesome cover, Mark Fredrickson.

I want to talk about Mark for a moment. When I was told who would be painting the cover I was thrilled. I've been a fan of Mark’s work for a long time. Although you may not recognize his name, you've probably seen his art many times while scanning magazine racks at the grocery store, because Mark is one of the premiere cover artists for Mad Magazine. In fact, the day I learned that Mark was going to be doing the cover for Frenzy, I was standing in the check-out line at Publix and saw, tucked snug in a rack next to People Magazine, a special-edition of Mad sporting a Mark Fredrickson cover. Mark has also painted for Time Magazine and he's created book covers for some of my favorite writers including R.L. Stine.

You may have even seen his work on an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live.

I think Mark did a fantastic job on my cover. The squirrel almost leaps off the page, and the raccoon is terrifying (I was once confronted by a rabid raccoon while walking a neighbor’s dog, and I can say from that experience that Mark nailed the look). But my favorite is the sickly porcupine peeking around the tree trunk in the upper left-hand corner.

Now that the advance reader copies are off to reviewers, I’ve moved on to the next book, which I hope to talk about soon. As a teaser I’ll just say that in a few weeks I’m heading to the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia to do research for the story.

The soft-cover advance reader copies aren’t available to the general public, but the hardcover version will be released on April 8th and you can pre-order them online or buy them in bookstores on that date. If a child you know (ages 10-15) is a fan of science-thrillers like Jurassic Park, Congo, or Micro, then Frenzy will be a perfect gift. The book is scary (in a good way), but it’s also loaded with fun, factual science. So, you know, they’ll actually learn something.

I’d like to thank all of you who have purchased or plan on purchasing Frenzy. I hope you like it! If you want to read more about Frenzy and my future books, please visit me at:

Thursday, May 23, 2013

I won’t lie, there’s something exhilarating about
meeting one's agent or editor for the first time. To a writer, the term “meet
your maker” is fairly applicable. After all, the agent and editor are the
professionals who make our dreams come true.

Initially we get to know them on a
genial level via phone and email before the face-to-face, so there’re no
illusions of giant floating heads and fireballs a la The Wizard of Oz.

But it’s still an exciting prospect to shake hands with (or
for the more honestly expressive, bear hug the crap out of) those who have
signed on to become our business partners, creative muses, therapists, friends.

There are very few introductory meetings in a writer’s life
that will hold this kind of weight: The doctor that spanks us like a ketchup
bottle, dislodging that first breath free. The soul mate. The rug rats. The fan
at the head of the line at our first book signing. The second soul mate. The mortician.
Meeting our agent or editor can feel that
important to the writer who’s struggled for years to arrive at this stage in
the journey towards publication. Most writers go through a period of bobbing in
the vast sea, treading water to the point of exhaustion, waiting to be tossed a
lifeline. So when someone comes along who thinks were worthy of
fishing from the drink, we love them for it.

In 2011 I flew from South Carolina
to Boston (my
old college stomping grounds) to meet my agent, the insert honorific
adjective here Lauren MacLeod of the Strothman Agency. We had lunch at a
semi-fancy eatery and I ordered one of those eat-with-a-fork burgers with a
side of the kind of quality fries that potatoes aspire to be. Lauren was
everything I surmised from our phone and email exchanges: bubbly, personable, savvy,
informed…I had this vision of Lauren charming editor after editor and
then, when she has them all entranced, WHAM! She drops the hammer--Auction,
eight figure deal, we keep all rights (including English, why not?), million
dollar signing bonus, all while I’m standing off to the side, tenting my
fingers like Mr. Burns. “Excellent!”

I joke, but I left our luncheon with my confidence in Lauren
as solid as ever. In the winter of 2012 Lauren
brokered a two-book deal with Disney-Hyperion on my behalf. Confidence
rewarded.

A few weeks ago I flew to New York to meet my editor Ricardo Mejias for the first time. The plan was to go over final edit
notes for my first book, Frenzy, and to discuss my next project. I forwarded
four synopses in advance, anxious to find out which, if any, he envisioned as the
second half of the contract.

It's story time.

We agreed to meet at the Disney-Hyperion offices at the end
of the afternoon, and like the good Southern boy I am, I was a few minutes
early. I entered the building and signed in at the front desk. Everything had
that sleek, sterile look that says, “Welcome to the Umbrella Corp.” I received
my visitor’s pass…

and headed through the turnstile to the bank of equally
sterile elevators. I picked one. There were no UP and DOWN arrow buttons. Instead there was
a numbered keypad. I reasoned that I needed to type in my floor number, but
when I did, nothing happened. The screen remained blank.

This is the point where my country mouse started steering my
body Ratatouille-style. An elevator to my left opened and a gentleman stepped
in. I leapt in behind him. Inside the elevator there were no buttons at all. At
all!

I had no choice but to ride up with the other passenger to
his destination, step out, and try again. This time, when I pressed 33 into the
keypad, the building decided to stop screwing with me and the elevator
descended to Floor Thirty-Three. Now, I know my plight doesn't seem like a big
deal (and Lauren made this very same journey just a few months earlier, and
will probably wonder what’s wrong with me when she reads this), but I was understandably nervous and all of the little stresses were amplified a bit. In
my mind’s eye, I conjured up a scenario where the Disney-Hyperion staff were
watching me via hidden video cameras, monitoring my heart rate and possibly spraying
invisible stress-inducing chemicals (wasp pheromones, maybe?) into The Box to
unbalance me in advance of any remaining edit negotiations. Are there more
stressful elevators out there? Sure, I suppose so.

When I escaped from the hellevator, I walked down the empty
hallway and came to a glass wall with heavy, glass double-doors in the center.
Locked. Another indecipherable keypad. Oh, Obi Wan. I feel your pain.

I started to wonder what exactly I was going to have to do
to make my appointment on time.

Here’s a Robert factoid. When I
was a kid, I had a mild case of entamaphobia, fear of doors. I wasn’t afraid of walking through them like others afflicted
with this ridiculous condition (slightly less silly than ostiumtractophobia,
fear of door knobs), but I had doubts about my ability to open them, especially
in public places where people would see me fail at such a simple task. It’s rather
embarrassing to push when you should have pulled, or worse yet, when you can’t
get the door to open at all. This happened once at a crowded diner (I quickly
returned to the table and informed my mother that they’d locked us inside,
which wasn't the case, obviously).I thought about joining a support group, but I feared I wouldn't be able to open the door to the meeting room.

Fortunately, I passed the phobia along to my nephew and have been opening doors with great confidence since
1989. It’s only in certain high-tech, modern buildings that TheFear
creeps in again. It’s like they expect you to have an intuitive understanding
of their one-of-a-kind, computerized entrance technology! I am not R2D2. I was
not born with one of these.

It was nearing the end of the afternoon, and it appeared as though everyone had left for the day. Fortunately,
someone eventually walked by and saw me fogging up the glass.

I was in.

Let me preface this part of the story by saying I had some
inflated expectations as to what the Disney-Hyperion offices would look like.
This stems from the fact that I once worked in the bullpen at Marvel
Comics, and Marvel was everything you’d imagine: superhero art adorning the
walls and columns, action figures lining editors’ shelves, famous artists
stopping by to drop off freshly drawn pages, a pot-bellied guy in a Spider-Man
costume leading visitor tours through the hallways… a fanboy’s dream (I’ll
discuss my time at Marvel in another blog entry soon.)

I carried similar notions with me to the Disney-Hyperion offices, although I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d find. Jack Sparrow as the
receptionist (his booted feet on the desk, a jug of rum resting on the fax
machine.) Tigger bouncing around the hallways, tossing shredded manuscript
pages around like confetti. Editors traveling through the halls via cars
salvaged from the defunct Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.

(Thanks for nothing, Google.)

Of course, this was just the imagination of a writer and
die-hard Disney fan working overtime. My illusions of whimsical grandeur were quickly
wiped away.

I was hoping for THIS:

Would have settled for THIS:

But got THIS:

There were a few stacks of Disney books on shelves and tables,
but otherwise there was nothing Be-Our-Guest-ish about the place. I was later informed
that these were just temporary digs as the publisher’s staff waited for new
offices which were still under construction in another part of town. Bummer.

I found Ricardo's office and introduced myself. Pleasant and soft-spoken, he immediately put me at ease
after the Great Elevator Debacle of 2013. We sat down to talk.

So you know what’s infinitely better than meeting Mickey
Mouse? Brainstorming with an editor who not only gets the way you think, but who also shows enthusiasm, gives spot-on
feedback and has appreciation for the topics that interest you as a writer. I’ll
be eternally grateful to Ricardo for seeing a deeper story inside of Frenzy and
pointing it out to me. It’s an adventure story and a horror story and a
survival story, but he found at the core of it a modern morality play.
Ricardo asked the hard questions and with his guidance I was able to pass them
along to my readers: What do we owe each other as human beings when the $#!+
hits the fan? Is it ever okay to give up? Are there lines that must never be crossed,
even when our lives are on the line?

This is the job of every editor. They see the buried story,
hand the writer a shovel and they say, “Start digging.” And then when the
writer has unearthed the bones and assembled the beast, the editor—the co-excavator—hands
them a toothbrush and says, “Now get every last bit of crud off until it’s
sparkly clean.” The best editors have ground-penetrating radar. They can see
deeper, with more clarity. As writers, we’re lucky to have them.

So maybe the Disney-Hyperion offices weren't as awesome as
I’d envisioned. That’s okay, because in the end I wasn't there to meet Mickey
Mouse. I was there to meet my editor, and that meeting was worth the trip.

My goal has always been to encourage people to keep following their dreams. If you’re an unagented or
unpublished writer, just know that if you keep plugging away, treading the water,
writing the words, all of the awesome emotions associated with meeting the
professionals who will guide your career will be yours too someday. And, yes, those emotions are as cool as you’d
imagine (except for entamaphobia.
That one’s not cool at all).

There are a few interesting notes I can share from the meeting. 1). First, the release date for Frenzy will likely be bumped up from Summer 2014 to April 2014. So right now I’m planning for a spring launch. 2). Ricardo liked two ideas I presented for my second book, and we decided that I would develop them simultaneously. One is an intimate horror and the other is adventure/horror on an epic scale. I’ll release more details as I’m able.

Some noteworthy news:

1). My agency sister Brian Quinlan has been working on
something awesome, and even though she hasn’t told me how to find it online, it
was released into the wild this week, and I know it will be worth the hunt. You
can follow Bria for more cryptic info here: https://twitter.com/briaquinlan.
If the secret project has even an ounce of Bria’s brand of humor, it'll be great.

2). Honorary agency sister Stacey Lee recently signed a deal
with G.P. Putnam’s Sons for a winter 2015 release of her book Golden Boys.
According to her website, http://staceyhlee.com/:
When a 15-year-old Chinese girl kills a Missouri landowner in self-defense, she
and a runaway slave disguise themselves as young men and seek their freedom in
the frontier with a band of cowboys.

Sounds pretty cool. I’ll let you know when it’s available
for pre-order.

And in news to make you jealous, I’m going to see Star Trek again tonight, this time at a
private screening at the Skywalker Ranch where much of the Star Wars saga was
put together. Very surreal. The new Trek is a blast. I liked it infinitely better
than Iron Man 3 and highly recommend it, so go see it and support our Federation troops.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Lunch with an old friend at PF Changs. I'm also thankful for the waitress who upgraded my orange beef to the dinner portion. Some things are worth the guilt.

Starting the planning phase of the research trip for my new book. Saving my receipts for the tax write-off.

Thankful that this was a good week for my sick buddy. He seemed to have a little more spring in his step.

An idea for a new book. And even though my agent prefers some of my other ideas, it's not a bad thing when her reason for concern is this: “Actually, I wonder if [name of new book] is too
scary? (It certainly reminds me of one of those Twilight Zone episodes you see
too young and can just never ever get over.)”

The guy who took us into two wars is now obsessively painting dogs (50 so far, according to his art teacher). Oh, and he's also painting self portraits of himself in the tub. Thankful for our current president.

Monday, December 3, 2012

It’s official! I signed a two-book deal with
Disney-Hyperion! As a life-long Disney fanatic I’m not sure which part
of that statement I’m more excited about, the “I signed a book deal” part or the
“Disney” part. To talk about what could be the
most significant event of my professional life thus far I've decided to
conduct a Q&A with myself. I'll also cover some basic info for those of you who are visiting my blog for the first time. If, after reading this, you have any questions
you’d like to ask then please do. I'd love to hear from you.

Q: Seriously? Are you
really going to be writing for Disney or are you just making up stories?

A: Yes and yes. publishersmarketplace.com announced today:

Q: How did this
happen? Did you storm the gates of the MagicKingdom and hold the park hostage with
a BB gun, a la Clark Griswold, until Disney agreed to your demands?

A: Oooh, good idea, wish I’d thought of it sooner. I might
have saved myself three years of Herculean effort. But no, it was a little more
complicated than that. I’d always wanted to tell stories in some capacity, but like
many people I found myself distracted by a job I didn’t particularly care for. I
ran the service department for a commercial roofing company. Great company but
it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

One day I had an epiphany and decided it was time to
get serious about pursuing my preferred career of writing children’s books. I gave
my two week’s notice and headed to the beach to live and write. I did odd jobs
here and there (one example, designing and painting set pieces for local theatre
productions), but I still managed to write nearly full time. It was a
struggle, but I’d made the commitment and had no intention of giving up.

I wrote my
first book, Lucy Clayfoot, in about fourteen months. It’s still the story
closest to my heart, but I recognized that it wasn’t quite ready for
publication. I set Lucy Clayfoot aside and worked on another book as a palate cleanser.
I completed Journal of a Super Villain Sidekick in about a month. It just
flowed. I submitted it to a handful of agents and after receiving multiple offers
of representation, I chose Lauren MacLeod of the Strothman Agency. Her clients
seemed very happy, she had a blueprint for my future, and I was impressed with
her use of social media, especially Twitter, to promote her clients.

When
Journal of a Super Villain Sidekick didn’t sell (due to a glut of super hero
books flooding the market), I pressed on and wrote Frenzy. Frenzy took about six
months between inspiration and completion of the second draft. Lauren shopped
it around, Disney presented their offer a few months later, and here we are. I
have a book deal three years after leaving my old job behind.

Q: Do you really love
Disney or are you just being a major kiss @$$?

A: I honestly love almost everything about Disney (the price
of food in the theme parks is the noted exception). I’ve considered moving to Florida just to live
near Disney World and Epcot. I applied to CalArt’s animation program so I could
become an animator for The Mouse (didn’t get in). Animators like Glen Keane and
Andreas Deja had a profound influence on my art. I even painted a Disney mural
on one of the walls of my old house.

So yes, I’ve been Team Disney for a long time.

And now that they’ve snapped up so many of the other
companies I love—Marvel, Lucas, Pixar, Henson Studios—I feel unbelievably
lucky that I get to play in the world’s most creative sandbox.

Q: Did you have any
help along the way or do you claim to be an island?

A: I’m so grateful to my agent, Lauren MacLeod of the Strothman
Agency.

She may look and sound sweet, and she is, but she’s also a
powerhouse negotiator with impeccable business sense. Every day I come to appreciate
her more and more, as do her other clients, all of whom are on the fast track
thanks to Lauren (Well, Lauren plus
their ridiculous talent). And it doesn’t hurt that she’s one of the most
social media savvy agents ever.

I’m also grateful to my editor, Ricardo Mejias, and for
senior editor, Christian Trimmer, the two gentlemen who championed Frenzy to
their company. I’m excited to work with them on all of my upcoming books.

And then there’s my support system, my family and friends
who encouraged me every step of the way. Especially Funmi Oke (My #1 reader), Chris Cannon (best boss ever), fellow Glitter City Writers Group
member (and author of the Past Midnight series) Mara Purnhagen, my parents, my
sister Suzanne and her husband Glen (for providing me with a peaceful
environment while I wrote Frenzy), and my brother Ron. And I’m grateful for all
of the many people who have been there for me in one way or another to keep me
moving forward. Thanks everyone!

Q: What other books has Disney-Hyperion published?

A: I’m in excellent company. According to Wiki: Hyperion
is the home of numerous bestselling novels, including Mitch Albom’s
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
and For One More Day;
Eoin Colfer’s
Artemis Fowl, Candace Bushnell’s
Trading Up and Lipstick Jungle; Laura Moriarty’s The Rest of Her Life; Percy Jackson & The Olympians
and Ridley Pearson's
The Kingdom Keepers. The company's
bestselling memoirs include J. R. Moehringer’s
The Tender Bar; Duane “Dog”
Chapman’s You Can Run But You Can't Hide, and
Bob Newhart’s
I Shouldn’t Even Be Doing This.
They are also home to influential business books like Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail; self-help books like Dr. Phil
McGraw’s Relationship Rescue
and the Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
library; and celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver,
Nigella Lawson
and Dave Lieberman.

Q: What does this mean for other books you've written, specifically Lucy Clayfoot?

A: I love Lucy. She’ll get her time in the spotlight
someday. Just not sure when. I know I want to do an extensive rewrite. She’s
like my daughter, so I want to make sure that her book is perfect before I turn
it over to the powers that be. Hopefully, when the time comes, they’ll love her
as much as I do. Personally, I think Lucy and Disney would be a match made in heaven.

Q: Didn’t you go to
school to be an artist? Does that mean you’ll be illustrating your own books?

A: Yes, I earned my BA in Fine Art at AtlanticUnionCollege, but I probably
won’t be illustrating my books for awhile. At this point I’m not even sure my
editor knows I can draw. We haven’t discussed it. My first two books will be
illustration-free, with the possible exception of a wildlife chart in Frenzy. Someday
I’d love to do a project that would benefit from visuals. Possibly Lucy
Clayfoot?

Q: What age group are
you writing for?

A: My first two books are for middle grade readers. That
puts my readership in the 8-14 range. However, a well written book can appeal
to all ages. I aspire to write for that coveted 8 to 80 crowd.

Q: When does your
first book come out?

A: My first book, Frenzy, is tentatively scheduled for hardcover release in the summer of
2014. The publishing business is a bit like the DMV trapped in
amber. But things move slowly for an important reason—quality control. The next
step for Frenzy is a round or three of editing based on notes I’ll get from my
editor. These notes may involve changes to characters, plot, pacing, etc.
Sometimes these edits can take months.

After Frenzy is polished, Disney will
need to do some advance promotion and booksellers will need to be made aware
of its existence so they can put their orders in. All of this takes time. And
often, just like with movies, the content of a book can be a factor when
determining its release date. Publishers look to the summer to put out books that
will appeal to the out-of-school and vacation crowds. In today’s market, a
novel like Peter Benchley’s Jaws would most likely come out during beach season.
Frenzy is set at a summer camp, which may have been a factor when Disney
determined its release date, don't know for certain.

Q: And your second
book?

A: Once the ball is rolling, assuming I don’t drop it, you can
(fingers crossed) expect a new book every year. My second book is scheduled for
a 2015 release.

Q: After reading the
Publishers Marketplace announcement I have an idea of what your first book is about. What about
your second book? Will it be a sequel to Frenzy or something else?

A: It probably won't be a sequel to Frenzy, although I was given that option. This is a situation
where my editors have put their trust in me to write whatever my heart desires,
as long as it falls within the boundaries of middle-grade and appeals to the
audience we’re targeting with Frenzy. I'm working on something. Like Frenzy, it’s a mix of three genres:
horror/adventure/science thriller. The only specific I can offer for now is
that I had the bizarre idea of putting characters in a horrific situation set
in vividly colorful locations. As I’m writing, I’m envisioning brilliant blues,
lush greens and hemoglobin reds.

Q: What’s a science
thriller?

A: Michael Crichton, one of my favorite authors, was the
king of the science thriller before he passed away. His books, Jurassic Park, Congo, Sphere and Prey, to name a few, are fast-paced
adventures loaded with interesting bits of advanced science and technology.
That’s basically what a science thriller is all about.

Although I doubt I’ll
ever attain Crichton's level of skill at the genre, one of my favorite things about
writing is finding some obscure and fascinating bit of information that I can
throw into a story. For example, while researching for Frenzy I discovered that
the silvertip grizzly bear’s sense of smell is seven times greater than that of
a bloodhound. Not only can they smell your fear, they can smell your fear
from the next county over. Grizzlies can pick up the scent of a dead animal
twenty miles away. I like to add those kinds of details to my stories, not just to ground my fiction in reality, but also to motivate kids to do independent
research on topics they might not otherwise take an interest in.

Here’s Amazon’s list of top science thrillers currently on
bookstore shelves.

A: Presumably the usual places. Bookstores (traditional and
online). I’ll be sure to post links on Twitter and my website when the time
comes. I’ll also be holding contests, so it will be possible to win copies. Just
keep checking in on me for details.

Q: Will your books
zoom up the charts and sit perched at the top of the New York Times Best Seller
List for decades?

A: According to my mom, yes.

Q: Do you have a website?

A: I’m in the process of building one at www.robertlettrick.com. Right now
there’s nothing there but a placeholder image. As soon as my site is up and
running I’ll let you know. Until then you can find me on this blog (which I
hope to update with regularity) and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/robertlettrick.

Q: What are some of
your favorite books?

A: Growing up I was an avid comic book collector. Sadly, I
lost thousands of comics when my family’s house burned down in 1987. The first MG novel I read was Wrinkle in Time and it's still one of my favorites. I enjoyed The Boxcar Children series, mainly
because of the way Gertrude Chandler Warner was able to make crusty bread and boiled
potatoes seem so delicious. I read Peter Mayle's travel books for the same reason. J.K.
Rowling took food porn to a whole new level in Harry Potter through her
descriptions of Hogwarts feasts. If I could have one super power it would
probably be the ability to make roast beef, cakes and French fries pop up out
of my table top.

Hmmm…where was I? Oh yes, my favorite books. The aforementioned Harry Potter:SS was the book that set my career as an author in motion.
The idea that one person could create such an incredibly rich
world populated by immensely likable characters was mind blowing. Although I’ll
never forgive J.K. Rowling for what she did to (deep breath) Lupin, Tonks,
Colin Creevey, Lavender, Mad Eye Moody, Dobby, Fred, Sirius, Dumbledore, Snape,
and Hedwig (wow, I just envisioned one of those Academy Awards films featuring
Those We Lost Over The Years At Hogwarts), I still owe her an enormous debt
of gratitude. The Butcher of Edinburgh and I even share the same birthday, July
31st, so I feel a special kinship. I’m sure it will forever remain
one-sided.

Q: You mentioned that
you used to collect comic books. Did you ever think about becoming a comic book
writer?

A: Actually for most of my teens and twenties I wanted to
draw comic books. I did an internship at Marvel Comics which led to some
freelance penciling work. I also drew a three-issue mini-series for Harris
Publications. I was serious about comics so I entered the Sequential Art MA
program at the Savannah College of Art and Design. I’d love to write comics in
my free time and that’s something I’ll actively pursue soon.

Q: Where do you get
your ideas?

A: In my opinion, the trick to good ideas is sensory
deprivation. You have to shut out the world around you if you want to tune in
to the world inside your head. If I’m alone and not plugged into the figurative
Matrix of day to day distraction then my creative juices flow. I’ll admit that
I get most of my book ideas in the shower where I’m not bombarded by the internet,
music, my phone, etc. Sometimes ideas come while I’m on long walks, driving or,
on the rare occasion, in a dream. They never come when I’m sitting in front of
the television.

Q: What do you like
to do when you’re not writing?

A: I like to explore new places. I've moved around a lot
over the years, but there are still so many places I want to visit. My goal is
to get to the point as a writer where I can just keep moving from beautiful
city to beautiful city, writing somewhere new every month, soaking up the
local culture on my breaks.

I’m also an information addict. I’m always scanning the
internet for weird, obscure facts, many of which make it into my books.

Q: What are your long
term goals as a writer?

A: It’s all about writing books that tap into that little
creative nougat in kids’ brains. The part that inspires them to write or draw
or compose songs or dress up in homemade costumes. I've been inspired by so many
people over the years, it would be great to inspire others in return,
especially children. My second goal is just to get better and better at the craft of writing.

Q: Do you have any
advice for someone who wants to become a published author?

A: Yes, and it’s the same advice I’d give to anyone with a
dream. Go after it with all of your heart. Ignore the naysayers. Ignore that
creeping self-doubt. I really believe that if you want something in this life
then it can be yours as long as you’re willing to put in the time and hard work
to get there. Never give up. Even if it takes twice as long as you thought it
would. Just keep plugging away and eventually you’ll get that book deal, that
team contract or that show at a top gallery.

The boxer George Foreman once
said, “The world is full of people who want to play it safe, people who have
tremendous potential but never use it. Somewhere deep inside them, they know
that they could do more in life, be more, and have more -- if only they were
willing to take a few risks.” That’s coming from a guy who won the World
Heavyweight Championship at the age of forty-five, twenty long years after
losing it to Mohammad Ali! The point is this: if you want something bad enough, no
matter your circumstances, then who can stop you? I mean besides George
Foreman. I’m pretty sure he could stop you.

Q: Do you have any
charities you’d like to direct my attention to?

A: I like your spirit of generosity! Kudos. Yes, as a matter
of fact, I do. A friend of mine, Todd Niemi, is writing the screenplay for a
movie about elephant activist Lek Chailert. As the founder of the ElephantNaturePark in Thailand, Lek is doing some amazing
work and it’s very easy to contribute to the cause. You can even choose to
sponsor a specific elephant or just buy it lunch.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Last week I responded to an online ad posted by someone looking for an artist who could draw in a Disney storyboard style. After reviewing my artwork on this blog, the client--I'll call him CT for the sake of anonymity--explained the scope of the project. CT had decided to propose to his girlfriend of three years on Christmas morning. He had the great idea of presenting her with a book of drawings highlighting several key moments in their relationship. The first half of the book covers important events leading up to the proposal. For the second half, I drew the proposal (how CT envisioned it happening) and then a few extra scenes that CT hopes to see in their future together.CT had a distinct vision of how the illustrations should look stylistically. The first reference image he sent was of a piece of conceptual art from the Pixar movie Toy Story II. It's a beautiful drawing. The artist was able to evoke a lot of emotion with minimal line work and color. With this image I had all of the artistic guidance I needed to get started.(c) Pixar. All rights reserved.CT then sent me a list of nineteen scenes to illustrate, with detailed descriptions of the surroundings, clothing, emotions, etc. He also sent me a few dozen photos for reference. I was impressed by the thought and care he'd put into the preparation. There was no doubt he wanted this book to be something special. When all of the drawings were finished and painted, I bound them into a scrapbook cover that CT picked out and Fed-Exed the completed book. He received it on the 22nd and loved it.CT was nice enough to allow me to post the finished artwork here. We had a tight deadline, which had to include a day for shipping, so I poured my heart into the work because I just really loved this project.In my last two blog posts I mentioned that I was thinking of starting a new business venture. CT's book is exactly the sort of project I'd love to work on for future clients. The book concept would be great for anniversaries, weddings, births...essentially capturing life's memorable moments.Below are photos I took with my phone of the finished pages. As CT pointed out when he received the book, the actual colors in the illustrations are more vibrant in person.CT proposed yesterday. Did his girlfriend say yes? You'll have to scroll to the bottom to find out.